With the title “The Code” Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland. Germany’s starter Isaak ended up in twelfth place in the final in Malmö. The ESC was overshadowed by protests against Israel.
Nemo from Switzerland won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) with the song “The Code”. Nemo got the most points with 591, as announced in the live show in Malmö. This was Switzerland’s first win since 1988, when Céline Dion won the trophy.
The musician Baby Lasagna from Croatia came second with the song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”, followed by Ukraine, France and Israel. Germany landed in twelfth place out of 25 finalists with singer Isaak and the song “Always On The Run”, ending the long-standing series of last and penultimate places.
The German singer Isaak during his performance with “Always On The Run”.
Isaak praised Nemo: the winning song was a “really awesome song,” the 29-year-old from East Westphalia told journalists. He was “very satisfied” with his own performance. It felt “very, very good” for him on stage. “I was full of myself. I delivered as I expected.” He suspects that his lucky charm helped him. Isaak had his little son’s socks in his shoes during the performance.
However, after the days in Malmö he is now “really exhausted” and he just wants to rest for the next few days. But he will definitely celebrate afterwards.
Complaint against disqualification from Klein
The ESC final was repeatedly disrupted by boos throughout the evening. The background was protests against the participating country Israel and dissatisfaction with the disqualification of the Dutch participant Joost Klein. He was excluded from the final. According to the Dutch television station Avrotros, the background was an aggressive gesture by Klein towards a camerawoman.
The Dutch public broadcaster (NPO) filed an official complaint with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The NPO wanted to submit substantive arguments for the complaint later. Klein has not yet commented publicly on the event. During the song contest, however, he shared an animal film with dogs jumping around wildly on his Instagram account.
Numerous demonstrators taken away
The evening was also overshadowed by anti-Israel protests in front of and in the hall. They were directed against the organizers’ decision to let Israel compete despite the Gaza war. In this context, critics accuse the organizers of double standards because the EBU excluded Russia because of the war of aggression against Ukraine.
During the protests, police officers led climate activist Greta Thunberg, whose mother came 21st for Sweden at the ESC 15 years ago, with other demonstrators from the square in front of the arena.
At the first demonstrations in the evening, the police described the mood among the 6,000 to 8,000 participants as “peaceful” – however, at the much smaller gathering in front of the hall, the emergency services took greater action and cordoned off the area. Several people were arrested outside for causing a disturbance.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather before the ESC final in Malmö.
Israel between boos and cheers
There were also calls of protest against Israel’s performance from the audience in the hall. The attempts at disruption continued throughout the evening. As soon as the Israeli singer Eden Golan took the stage at the entry of the nations, whistles could be heard in the hall.
During her performance with the song “Hurricane,” Golan later had to endure numerous whistles and loud boos. But there was also a lot of cheering. The boos then got louder again when the Israeli jury’s points were awarded.
Russian-Israeli singer Eden Golan (center), who represented Israel with the song “Hurricane,” and her team members react to the vote count at the end of the final.
Praise from the Foreign Minister
Shortly before the start of the final show, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz supported Eden Golan. “Eden proudly stands up to enormous hatred and anti-Semitism,” Katz wrote on the X platform. “Today we show all the haters who is leading the way.”
Germany’s television audience gave Israel the highest score of 12 in the televoting. TV presenter Ina Müller from Germany was called in to award the points.